Familiar Faces
by The Cinderninja
Summary: (Cos) Ed wasn't the only one haunted by familiar faces.


**Mossmask: This is completely unedited and I didn't even like it to begin with.  
Please don't hate me for this (it's awful).  
~Dash Out**

* * *

Familiar Faces  
Fullmetal Alchemist fanfiction  
by The Cinderninja

She had gotten the letter only moths previous. Her eldest son had died while studying in London. She had grieved, and she had moved on as best she could. It was hard though. Parents were never supposed to outlive their children. She had been alone at the time. Her husband had left recently without an explanation, and both of her sons were attending distant universities.

After getting the letter about Edward, she decided that she wouldn't sit around and wait for news anymore. She'd had her whole family taken from her – her mother died when she was very young, and her father had died when she was only 19. Her husband left her, and now her first son was gone too. She would hold on to what she had left as tightly as she could.

So, a few months after receiving the letter, she had packed up what little she had and bought a one way ticket to Munich. And when she finally arrived, she learned she was still too late. Alfons was dead as well. Apparently she had missed him by mere days. _Days_. There were men who had known him, and they were all being very vague about how he had died. She wasn't, however, too late for the funeral.

She would see at least one of her boys put to rest. She never noticed the figures at the back of the service, and left soon after.

She met a woman named Gracia that same day. Upon learning that she was Alfons' mother, she offered to let her stay with her until she had decided where to go from here. She was grateful, considering she didn't have enough money left to return. She had just... wanted to see her son.

And all at once, it was too much. She had collapsed into the other woman's arms, sobbing. Gracia had led her back to the house, sat her on a couch, and brought her some warm stew. She didn't like having to be babied – treated like a child. She appreciated Gracia's kindness, but didn't want to be a burden.

The next morning, she got out of bed early, did Gracia's washing, and had breakfast ready when the younger woman awoke. She offered to go to the market and do the shopping. Gracia was ready to argue, but she quickly gave a gentle smile and explained that "I don't want to feel like a bother, and I need something to take my mind off of things." Gracia reluctantly agreed.

It didn't help her take her mind off things.

* * *

Trisha was in an unfamiliar place, and her world had just come crashing down around her. Even so, she put on a smile as she did her and Miss Gracia's shopping. Because she was a strong woman, and she was stuck in Munich now and would need to keep her wits about her if she wanted to keep on living. She would need a job, for money. She would need a place to stay besides Gracia's, if she planned on staying in Munich. And she didn't see any reason to leave – she had no more roots holding her here as she did calling her back to any other place. It didn't really matter to her. But for now, she needed to find some potatoes.

She was grieving, but the world kept spinning. If she fell now, it wouldn't wait for her to get back up.

She believed all of this, as she always had, until her world ground to a shuddering halt, and threw her off her feet.. Because _right there, _on the other side of the street, were to boys who _shouldn't_. Shouldn't be here, shouldn't be together, shouldn't be alive. And she wondered if perhaps she wasn't coping quite as well as she thought she was, if she was seeing her son's faces on boys in the market.

And maybe she wasn't as strong as she thought after all, if she was on her hands and knees, dropping Gracia's shopping where it rolled across the cobblestones.

And maybe she'd let her mind get away from her, because as the world blurred and she heard someone cry out in surprise, and rapid footsteps on the stones, and a hand on her shoulder, it was _his voice_ asking if she was okay. Maybe she should have waited longer to go back outside. Maybe then she wouldn't have been reduced to sobbing on the pavement as someone who _couldn't possibly be her son_ tried to comfort her.

But then she grabbed his wrist and looked up at him, and her breath caught, because he looked different, yes, but more importantly, he _looked the same_. And she knew she was probably frightening the boy. His pupils shrank when she looked at him and he backpedalled away from her, so she knew she must be frightening him. But she couldn't help it from escaping. "A-Alfons?"

"Mom?" Whatever she was expecting, it hadn't been that. It almost seemed _cruel_. She couldn't see his face any longer, as the world was too bright, and too streaked, to see anything clearly. But she was sure the little boy would be gone by now. Instead, she found both his small arms wrapped around her shoulders.

"Hey... it's, um, okay." He sounded frightened, but he was still holding her tightly. What a sweet boy. He didn't even know what was wrong with her.

"Hey, Al? What's going on?" A second voice sounded, and a second set of footsteps drew nearer. She knew the voice, but she knew it couldn't-

"Ed! I... um. I can't- she-!" The Alfons-boy seemed nearly as frantic as she was, and she knew they were making a scene. Her Alfons hated making a scene. He didn't like getting too much attention. She was surprised no one had asked them to move from the street yet. Or tried to interfere. If she had been able to see clearly, she would have realized that people were making an effort to give the sobbing woman a wide berth and keeping their eyes looking firmly away.

But he had said-... she looked up again as the second voice approached, and when she saw his face... it was too much. She grabbed his jacket and pulled. She was holding two boys she didn't even know and crying into their hair. She knew now. She wasn't strong at all. She was just a crazy old woman with nothing left to live for. But in this moment, she could at least pretend, that they were her boys, and they were together again. She couldn't bear to let go.

To her surprise, both boys hugged her back. And she could have sworn she heard someone else crying.


End file.
